


amy wreaks havoc

by allieteration



Category: High School Story (Visual Novel)
Genre: Choices, Choices: Stories You Play - Freeform, F/F, LGBT+, MC - Freeform, Pixelberry - Freeform, Screenplay/Script Format, lgbtq+, mc/maria flores, wlw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-15
Updated: 2018-01-15
Packaged: 2019-03-05 09:26:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13384911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allieteration/pseuds/allieteration
Summary: a screenplay in which there are three admissions: maria loves juno, she has been diagnosed with anxiety, and she has a problem.





	amy wreaks havoc

**Author's Note:**

> amy wreaks havoc originally sprouted as a screenplay featuring maria flores from the high school story series by pixelberry and choices: stories you play, and my mc, juno pinckney, but has blossomed into something meaningful. the script format is something i’m head over heels with experimenting in, and my aspiration is that it’s well-received. the choices fandom is, admittedly, obscure, and i acknowledge that, but for me—this tale is about two girls who love each other and a lamentable third party that they ultimately befriend. in essence, it is something anyone can unearth delight in. i hope you do.

FADE IN:

EXT. JUNO’S PINCKNEY’S HOUSE – SUNSET

 

JUNO is on her porch, beholding the vermilion and tangerine atmosphere environing her. She surveys the cars piloting themselves to their destinations. Through the screen door, she eavesdrops on the resonance of her DAD clamoring around in the kitchen. Her cell phone is facedown on an end-table beside her. She glances at it every three minutes. At last, it chimes with her ringtone; “Für Elise”, MARIA FLORES’S preferred song.

 

MARIA

Juno?  Can we, erm, _talk_?  For a minute?

 

JUNO

I don’t know.  Can we?  I mean, considering you refused—with impressive ardor, might I add—to _talk_ to me all weekend, _and_ avoided me in classes, in the hallways, at lunch—

 

MARIA

 _Okay!_  Okay, I get it.  I...haven’t been myself lately.

 

JUNO straightens in her chair, exasperated.  Her voice reverberates against the encompassing redwood trees.

 

JUNO

That’s it?  ‘I haven’t been myself lately’?  I had to call Sydney, Aiden, Michael—all of our friends, countless times, this past weekend to make sure you hadn’t gotten tied up in an accident!

 

MARIA

Juno—

 

JUNO

You scared me, Mar.

 

MARIA

Juno, I’m—

 

JUNO

I don’t want your apologies.  Just...don’t do it again, okay?

 

MARIA’S voice is elfin as it translates through the telephone.

 

MARIA

I failed an exam, Juno.

 

JUNO

You _what_ ?  What does that have to do with… _oh_ …

 

JUNO trails off, her DAD peering out to alert JUNO to the strike on the grandfather clock for dinnertime.  She envelopes the speaker with her palm, dismissing him in a whisper.

 

JUNO

_It’s Maria.  Save me a plate._

 

DAD

_Everything okay?_

 

JUNO

_It will be._

 

DAD ducks into their residence, your mutt of the litter, BITCOIN, scurrying onto your lap before the storm door grates to a close.  She licks you tenderheartedly, your blood pressure concurrently dwindling.

 

MARIA

You...you still there, Jay?

 

JUNO

Yeah.  Yeah, I am.  And I’m, admittedly, feeling like an asstwat.  Congratulations!  You have an asstwat for a girlfriend.

 

MARIA

You didn’t know.

 

JUNO

Yeah, well, I didn’t ask.  It was my insecurities dominating me.  I thought...what I thought is obvious, I guess.

 

MARIA

That I wouldn’t want to be with you?  C’mon, Jay.

 

JUNO

Yeah, I’m understanding how asinine that is right about now.  I presume an apology is in order.

 

MARIA

Someone I admire once said, “I don’t want your apologies.”

 

JUNO

She sounds like a bitch.

 

MARIA

Not a bitch, just...hardheaded.  Like me.

 

JUNO settles into a pale silence, diffident.  She is pirouetting a thread from her sweatpants around her fingertip, disentangling it, and repeating the rhythm.

 

JUNO

What class was it?

 

MARIA

Hm?  What?

 

JUNO

The class that y-you’re exam was in?

 

MARIA

 _Oh._ Right.  Uh, AP Physics.

 

JUNO

Shit.  I was going to talk with the teacher for you, but Kellogg tells me I’ve ascended from Hell to personally make his life miserable on the regular.  He’s not wholly wrong, I don’t think.

 

MARIA laughs—a real laugh—then sniffles.  She’s been crying.

 

MARIA

It’s okay.  Besides, the College Board reviews advanced exams.  Kellogg wouldn’t have pull with them anyway.  Nobody does.  In fact, they’re kinda ruthless.

 

JUNO

I believe it.

 

MARIA

Ugh, _fuck_...just a second.

 

JUNO discerns a _clunk_ on MARIA’S end.  JUNO is stupefied; MARIA never curses aloud.  Minutes elapse, and another sniffle is overheard.  JUNO furrows her brow, venturing to distinguish what is happening.

 

MARIA

Sorry, I’m back.  I had to discreetly grab tissues without my dads noticing.  They check on me like clockwork; I don’t want to worry them anymore.

 

JUNO

How many boxes of tissues have you _gone through_?

 

MARIA

Erm...three?

 

JUNO

Maria Flores: exam failure and tree murderer.

 

MARIA

You’re a terrible girlfriend.

 

JUNO

Uh, yeah, we already established this.  I’m merely another mediocre notch on your bedpost.

 

MARIA

_Juno!_

 

JUNO

Fine, I surrender.  I’ll relieve you of my antics, and maybe you can get some rest.  All that crying wears a person out, y’know.

 

MARIA

Wait... _don’t go._

 

JUNO

What?

 

MARIA

I, um, need help with something.

 

JUNO

Please, tell me this isn’t going to turn into phone sex.

 

MARIA

No, but— _wait_ , you don’t like phone sex?

 

JUNO

Uh…

 

MARIA

Juno, we’ve had phone sex, like, five times!

 

JUNO

What, uh, nevermind that—what did you need help with?

 

MARIA

I don’t like to talk about it.

 

JUNO

Well, I—if I’m being transparent here—don’t like talking about sex over the phone, so we’re in the same boat.

 

MARIA

Jay, that’s different.  This is serious.

 

JUNO jingles the bell upon BITCOIN’S daffodil-hued collar, apprehensive.  A closeness akin to this is tender for her.  She does not acknowledge this.

 

JUNO

Shoot.

 

MARIA

Listen, I’ve never told you anything about this, but I love you, and I want you to know me, even the messy parts.

 

JUNO

You love me?

 

MARIA fathoms what she has professed.  Her headstrongness thwarts her from backpedaling.

 

MARIA

_I do._

 

There is a moment where this settles into the marrow of their bones.  JUNO beams from ear to ear, but is dubious, unable to articulate herself.

 

MARIA

I want you to love me, even if I told you I have an anxiety disorder…?

 

JUNO

You do?

 

MARIA

Yeah, I was diagnosed six months ago.  I’ve been doing outpatient therapy and meeting with a psychiatrist for med stabilization since.  My dads emphasized the stress school and the lust for perfection has on me, and we decided that professional help was what I needed—and...need.

 

JUNO

Are you okay?  Like, right now?  Can I help you somehow?

 

MARIA

Can you just, like, breathe with me?  I have this guided practice that I can do, but I want you here with me.

 

JUNO

Yeah.  Yeah, of course.   _I’m here._

 

MARIA

Okay.  Thank you.

 

JUNO

Consider it me making up for reaming you out earlier.   _And...me loving you, too._

 

JUNO can _hear_ MARIA’s smile.

 

MARIA

The method I was taught is to inhale for seven, hold for seven, and exhale for seven.  It creates a pattern that essentially distracts your amygdala from the “fight, flight, or freeze” chemical reaction that concocts anxiety behaviors.

 

JUNO

Just an amygdala doing amygala things.  Do you think Amy every feels ostracized by her own community?  “Community” as in the brain, I mean.

 

MARIA

“Amy” wreaks havoc on my ability to function on a daily basis.  If anyone’s being ostracized, it’s me.

 

JUNO

Fair enough.

 

MARIA

Are you ready?  Remember: seven across the board; breathe in, hold, breathe out.

 

JUNO

Got it.

 

MARIA and JUNO practice the exercise together; JUNO quipping in between breaths, MARIA pacifying her.  JUNO ultimately concedes, applying herself to the relaxation technique.

 

JUNO

Would it be selfish for me to establish that this actually helped _me_?  I was worked up before I talked with you, and now, I feel like I could float away.

 

MARIA

In a good way, I hope.

 

JUNO

Absolutely.  Are _you_ feeling any better?

 

MARIA

I am.  I think you supporting me was the biggest component in that, though.

 

JUNO

Just call me “Dr. Pinckney”.

 

MARIA

I think I’m going to need a counseling license for that to ever happen.

 

JUNO

Not even in a roleplaying scenario?

 

MARIA

Nope.

 

JUNO

Sheesh.  Rough crowd.

 

MARIA

Can I tell you something?

 

JUNO

I’m astonished that there’s anything else after admitting that you have anxiety and you’re in love with me.

 

MARIA

I needed to bomb my exam.

 

JUNO

Uh, I’m not following?  I thought that that was the problem here.

 

MARIA

It is.  Well, it _was_ .  It helped me recognize that I’m not the smartest to ever exist, nor am I the most capable, or the most put-together, or whatever other adjective you want to attach onto me.  I’m Maria; I’m _human_.  I need to come to terms with that.

 

JUNO

Step one: flunk an exam—complete.

 

MARIA

I suppose my third admission for this evening, then, is that I have a problem.

 

JUNO

Oh, shit, scratch that then.  Step one: admitting you have a problem.  “The first step on the ladder to the rest of your life!”

 

MARIA

I know you’re genuinely proud of me, so I’m going to let that slide.

 

JUNO

I _am_ proud of you.  I don’t show it enough.  Like, right now.  But I _am_.  And I’m going to be here, sitting on my water-damaged, ramshackle porch, waiting for you to come home every day until there’s a day you realize that you’re out of my fucking league.

 

MARIA

Never, Jay.

 

JUNO

I love you.

 

MARIA

Will the butterflies ever fly away, or are we going to have to feel them flutter around in there every time we say that?

 

JUNO

I don’t know.   _I hope they never leave._

 

**END**

 


End file.
